Taliban militants have freed 243 prisoners in an assault on a prison in north-west Pakistan, officials say.
The attack in the town of Dera Ismail Khan began with huge explosions at around midnight on Monday (15:00 GMT).
Gunmen then opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades and machine-guns, police chief Sohail Khalid said. About 70 attackers were in police uniform.
Dera Ismail Khan is Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, is next to Pakistan’s restive mountainous tribal region.
The town’s prison houses hundreds of Taliban and militants from banned groups.
Twelve people – including six police officers – were killed in the gun battle that raged for three or four hours after militants launched their assault.
The town’s civil commissioner Mushtaq Jadoon said that 30 hardened militants jailed for their involvement in major attacks or suicide bombings were among those who escaped.
Those released jail include two local Taliban commanders, Abdul Hakim and Haji Ilyas.
Also released is a sectarian militant, Waleed Akbar, the principle suspect in last year’s attacks on Shia mourners in Dera Ismail Khan during the Shia mourning month of Moharram.
Attackers used loudhailers to call the names of particular inmates, Mr Jadoon said.
Fourteen fugitives were later re-arrested by police, he said. A curfew has now been imposed on Dera Ismail Khan as police hunt for the remaining escaped prisoners, but correspondents say this will be a difficult task as they flee into tribal areas.
Katherine Houreld, a correspondent for Reuters news agency, told the BBC it had been a “very sophisticated attack – they blew the electricity line, they breached the walls and they set ambushes for reinforcements”.
Mr Jadoon told a local TV station that 14 explosive devices planted in the jail had so far been defused.
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